Fluorochemicals, typically, have relatively low surface tensions. Therefore, water and other common liquids tend to have a relatively high contact angle or “bead” when resting upon a fluorochemical surface. Fluorochemicals are, hence, referred to as repellents since they are not wetted by these fluids. Many commercially important fibers, fabrics, surfaces and materials are wetted by water and other common fluids. This wetting leads to unwanted effects such as water passing through an umbrella or coat or staining of a fabric by a liquid. It is desirable commercially to make these items repellent to water and/or common liquids. In practice, this is accomplished usually by topical application of a water-borne fluorochemical emulsion or dispersion. This technology has been practiced successfully for many years. Topical application of a water-borne repellent system has several disadvantages: (i) water must be removed in order for the repellent to work properly. The presence of water imparts a high thermal and time load on the manufacture of finished goods. Often, removal of water is the rate-limiting operation in the manufacture of goods containing repellents. The high temperatures and high heat of vaporization required to remove water introduce large energy and equipment costs in manufacturing. Heating must be done carefully as to not exceed the deflection temperature of a given fabric, fiber or material; (ii) there is a shift of fabrics to smaller deniers. This increases dramatically the surface area that needs to be coated by a fluorochemical repellent. The cost associated with providing repellency increases with decreasing fiber denier; (iii) the increased use of polyolefins has introduced challenges to topical application of water-borne fluorochemicals. Polyolefins, generally, have much lower surface tensions than materials used extensively in the past such as nylon. Successful application of a water-borne repellent package requires that the system wet the fiber in order to coat a substantial fraction of the surface. Water will not wet polyolefins well; therefore, surfactants are used to lower the surface tension of water such that it will wet the polyolefin. However, these surfactants remain with the fluorochemical coating and can raise the surface tension of the final repellent package. This is very detrimental to the performance of the fluorochemical as a repellent; (iv) topical application of a fluorochemical repellent introduces unit operations into fabrication of finished goods and, therefore, increases manufacturing costs; and (v) topical fluorochemical treatment produces a relatively thick coating of repellent on a surface.